Sermon for Ash Wednesday
Called into the Light
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Ash Wednesday is the day on which we begin our pilgrimage to Easter, following Jesus as he heads to Jerusalem willingly for what will be his trial, crucifixion, death and resurrection.
Lent is an Anglo-Saxon word that comes from the same route as “length,” since it occurs when winter days are lengthening into spring. In other languages, Lent is called “pascha” or Passiontide, from Christ’s passion, that is, Christ’s suffering.
Between Ash Wednesday and Easter there are 46 days. Usually, we speak of the 40 days of Lent. Since Jesus rose from the tomb on a Sunday, Sundays are festival days and not considered part of Lent, although they are part of the Lenten season. Thus, we end up with the 40 days of Lent. That is also why some people fast during Lent on every day but Sunday.
Why are there 40 days in Lent? No one knows for certain, but 40 has always been a special and holy number. In the early Christian church people fasted for the 40 hours from the time of Jesus’ death on Good Friday until the hour when they believed Jesus had risen early on Easter Sunday morning. We also remember the number 40 from other times in the Bible: The 40 days of rain from Noah’s time, the children of Israel wondering for 40 years in the wilderness, Moses spending 40 days and nights atop Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, Jonah waiting 40 days before prophesying at Nineveh. Jesus’ temptation comes after 40 days of fasting and there are 40 days between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.
Lent has not always been 40 days. Early Christians marked it in many time periods: 3, 6 or 7 weeks were common. In the 4th century the Christian Church in Jerusalem fasted for 40 days before Easter and that became the norm for Christians by the 6th century.
Ash Wednesday falls on a different date each year because the timing of Easter Sunday moves each year. Unlike a state holiday with a set date, Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring. This practice dates from centuries ago so that pilgrims coming to the Holy Land could have moonlight to guide them on their nighttime journeys.
Ash Wednesday gets its name from the use of the mark of the ash on a person’s forehead, an Ash Wednesday custom from the ancient Christian church, now common in Roman Catholic and most Lutheran and Episcopal congregations, among many others. This custom traces its roots to devout Jews in Old Testament times who used ashes on their foreheads as a sign of grief and mourning. The ashes used on Ash Wednesday are traditionally the ashes of last year’s palms from Palm Sunday. This links one Lenten and Easter season to another. (Maxine and I carefully burned last year’s Palm Sunday palms last Wednesday and yesterday I mixed the ashes with olive oil, providing the ash for our foreheads today). The words used with the placement of the ashes on one’s forehead are traditional, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The symbols of Ash Wednesday, and the entire season of Lent, are dark and serious – the crumbly ashes placed on our foreheads, the somber liturgy, the presence of a confession that calls us to look deep within ourselves and become more honest before God.
But the lessons for this day do not bid us to stay alone in the darkness of our sin. They bid us to come out into the light of a God who desires nothing more than our returning, a God eager to welcome us from darkness into light, a God who is a restorer of community.
God’s words call us to action: Joel says, “Gather the people … assemble the aged, gather the children, even infants at the breast.” Jesus calls us to see that where our heart is, there our treasure will be also. These words call us out of the darkness of our sin and into the light of Christ lived out in community and for the sake of our neighbor.
The ashes on our foreheads are not merely a smudge; they are a cross. The crumbly ashes point to our finite earthly existence and the weight of our sin. The cross points us to the infinite promises of a God who is with us in our turning. The finite points to the infinite. Mortal existence is tied to eternal promises.
And we are freed. Freed to serve. God leads us back out in the world.
If we truly embrace Jesus’ words, what difference it might make in our lives, in our relationships with coworkers, neighbors, family members, even strangers? Are there relationships in our life right now that need healing and reconciliation? Ash Wednesday bids us to begin right now, as we journey with Jesus to the greatest symbol of reconciliation and healing there is – the cross of Christ.
God’s words call us to an honest confrontation with everything that keeps us from placing our full trust in God. And then we are called to go out – out into the world, out into the light, out into the glorious reality that we are not destined to darkness. We are destined to live in the light of Christ, as finite mortal creatures blessed with God’s infinite promises.
We are called out of the darkness of our sin and into the light of Christ lived out in community and for the sake of our neighbor.
Amen.
(With thanks to the Rev. Dr. J. Elise Brown).
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sunday, March 6, 2019
